New CMOS technology for scientific applications

Andor Technology of Belfast, Northern Ireland, Fairchild Imaging of Milpitas, California, USA, and PCO AG of Kelheim, Germany have been working together on a brand new CMOS technology. They introduced the technology by presenting a white paper on the technology at the Laser World of Photonics in Munich on June 16.

According to the companies, the new technology--called scientific CMOS (sCMOS)--will benefit many microscopy applications such as live-cell, super-resolution, and spinning-disk confocal microscopy as well as TIRF, FRAP, FRET, and single molecule detection.

The technology looks to be a significant advancement for biological imaging because it overcomes some of the drawbacks of many sensor technologies, including interline CCDs and electron multiplying (EM) CCDs, which are often used in demanding microscopy applications. sCMOS can simultaneously provide low noise, rapid frame rates, wide dynamic range, high quantum efficiency (QE), high resolution, and a large field of view. 

Here are the numbers for the first sCMOS sensor:

• Sensor format: 5.5 megapixels (2560(h) x 2160(v))
  
• Read noise: <> 16,000:1 (@ 30 frames/s)
  
• QEmax.: 60%
  
• Read out modes: Rolling and Global shutter (user selectable)
  

The white paper provides data and images comparing the sCMOS technology with EM and Interline CCDs. All three companies plan to have cameras using the new technology in 2010, some as early as first quarter.

Get more information on the sensor technology and the white paper at www.scmos.com.

More on this development in the blog post: Is the sCMOS too good to be true?